Human Trafficking - Full Report

Written By JD Bauman

Written by Vesa Hautala

Report depth:

Intermediate

Est. read time: 30-40 minutes

What is human trafficking?

Quick facts

  • About 1 million people are estimated to be trafficked globally in a year.

  • An estimated 27 million in total live in forced labour.

  • Most human trafficking takes place within countries or within the same region.

    • e.g. within Sub-Saharan Africa or within North America.

  • People are most commonly trafficked for forced labour or sexual exploitation.

  • About 60% of detected trafficking victims are female.

  • About 40% of detected trafficking victims are underage.

  • Most human trafficking is conducted by organised criminal groups.

  • Human trafficking doesn’t have to involve the transport of people.

  • Trafficking doesn’t always involve kidnapping or physically forcing the victims.

  • Only about 3% of trafficked persons are abducted.

  • Media portrayals of human trafficking have been accused of sensational, inaccurate, and racist portrayals of human trafficking.

Definition of human trafficking

Despite the word “trafficking”, human trafficking doesn’t necessarily involve the transport of people.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines human trafficking as consisting of three core elements: the act, the means, and the purpose. (This definition is based on a UN protocol.)

Act

The trafficker must do one of the following to people:

  • recruit, transport, transfer, harbour or receive

Means

Using one or more of these methods:

  • threat or use of force, coercion, fraud, deception

  • abuse of a position of vulnerability

  • giving payments of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person

  • abduction

Purpose 

For the purpose of exploitation. The protocol defined exploitation as including, at the minimum:

  • prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation 

  • forced labour or services

  • slavery or similar practices

  • servitude

  • or the removal of organs

The US State recognises two primary forms of human trafficking: forced labour and sex trafficking. Additionally, all cases where a person under 18 is used to perform a commercial sex act regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion are involved is considered human trafficking.

The US uses a three-part acts, means and purposes framework that resembles the UN definition to define human trafficking. Even if the victim initially consented to providing services, labour, or commercial sexual acts, human trafficking can still take place if the perpetrator uses force, fraud or coercion in an exploitative scheme.

Human trafficking is different from human smuggling as that happens with the consent of the person being smuggled. Smuggling is often a commercial (albeit criminal) transaction between two consenting parties who go their separate ways afterwards, whereas human trafficking has the exploitation of the victim as its goal.

Biblical perspectives

The topic of slavery in the Bible is somewhat difficult because the Bible was written in a time and place where slavery was widely practised and generally considered an inevitable part of life.

The Bible does not contain an explicit blanket condemnation of slavery. However, throughout the history of Christianity, many believers started to consider slavery as wrong based on their faith (see Theological considerations section below).

The Old Testament law contains precepts aimed at better treatment of slaves. In the New Testament we find passages that speak of the equal worth of all people, whether slave or free—perhaps most famously Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (NKJV)

The first epistle to Timothy 1:10 condemns a group of people variously translated as “menstealers” (KJV), “kidnappers” (NASB, HCSB, NKJV), “enslavers” (ESV) or “slave traders” (NRSV, NIV).

This condemnation is part of a long list of various things “contrary to sound doctrine” (RSV). The Greek term ἀνδραποδιστής (andrapodistés) refers to a person who unjustly reduces free people to slavery (or steals the slaves of others). 

There are also other passages that are relevant to practices that are part of human trafficking, such as wage theft.

  • The Law of Moses forbids withholding the wages of a day labourer in Leviticus 19:13 and Deuteronomy 24:14–15.

    • Trafficked people are commonly paid late or not at all at all—see below under economic harms of human trafficking

  • Jeremiah 22:13 (RSV): “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages.”

    • This verse is especially relevant since victims of forced labour often work in construction!

  • The same condemnation is repeated in the New Testament in James 5:4: “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (RSV).

Many verses in the Bible condemn oppression and injustice, especially against vulnerable people. As these are almost by definition a part of human trafficking, these verses prohibit the practice even in the absence of an explicit condemnation of slavery.

Verses speaking against the oppression of the vulnerable are particularly relevant because trafficked people are often from vulnerable groups and the traffickers exploit this.

Theological considerations

St. Gregory of Nyssa from the 4th century A.D. was an early critic of the practice of slavery.

Many Christians have historically lived in societies where slavery was common, but throughout the centuries, many of them came to the conclusion that God does not approve of slavery, even if he has tolerated it in the past. Examples include St. Gregory of Nyssa from the fourth century and William Wilberforce and other Christian abolitionists from the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is often said that Christianity contributed to the decline of slavery in the Roman Empire. Christians saw freeing slaves as a good thing to do. During the period when slavery still existed widely, Christian teachers such as St. John Chrysostom were urging better treatment of slaves.

The argument against human trafficking and slavery can be based on the core Christian principle that humans are created in the image of God. Should the image of God be treated as property, exploited, or oppressed?

The fact that God is the creator of every person and has given humans free will also goes against the idea of humans owning another human being. Human trafficking violates the dignity and sanctity humans bear as the image of God.

Christian ethics is based on love. The commandment to love one’s neighbour as oneself is incompatible with the cruel realities of human trafficking.

Does the Christian perspective on human trafficking differ from a secular perspective?

  • Christians may see human trafficking as a particularly gross violation of the dignity of the image of God. 

    • Christian anti-slavery history might contribute to this: Christians were at the forefront of the abolitionist movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, and enslaved people in the pre-abolition US commonly envisioned freedom from slavery through imagery borrowed from the Bible.

  • Human trafficking has become a well-known cause among Christians, especially US evangelicals.

  • At the same time, there are poor depictions of sex trafficking that further misleading and stereotypical views of what is a complex problem.

  • Christians should be aware of stereotypes and misrepresentations relating to human trafficking that may unfortunately be presented in Christian media as well.

    • The movie Sound of Freedom, for example, has been criticised for its portrayal of trafficking scenarios, simplifying complex issues, and showcasing tactics that might inadvertently increase demand for trafficked children.

    • Be aware of sensationalising tendencies and people exploiting the strong emotions the topic raises

Types of human trafficking

A break-down by type

Most detected human trafficking victims were trafficked either for 

  • forced labour (42%) 

  • sexual exploitation (36%) 

  • mixed exploitation (8%)

  • forced criminality (8%)

Other forms of exploitation include forced marriage, forced begging, and trafficking for organ removal.

This last one is attention-grabbing but especially rare compared with other forms of trafficking: only 0.14% of detected victims were trafficked for organ removal.

There is considerable variation between regions regarding the types of exploitation of the detected victims.

Forced labour dominates in Africa, South Asia, South America, and the Middle East, whereas trafficking for sexual exploitation is more common in Middle and North America and Central, Southern and Eastern Europe.

Trafficking type by region

Trafficking for forced labour 

  • About 70% of people trafficked for forced labour are male. 

  • Women and girls trafficked for forced labour are mostly exploited in 

    • domestic work (about 50% of cases) 

    • work in the entertainment sector (about 20% of cases)

    • agriculture (about 15%)

    • street selling (about 7%)

  • “Women are more likely to be coerced through wage non-payment and abuse of vulnerability.” They “are also more likely than men to be subjected to physical and sexual violence and threats against family members,” according to a report by ILO.

  • Men in forced labour are much more likely than women to be in the construction sector (22% of men in forced labour vs 6% of women)

  • There are also more men in mining and quarrying but this sector accounts for only a small share of total labour exploitation. Other sectors have roughly similar shares of men and women, but there is segmentation in the division of labour within the sectors.

  • Generally, “people in forced labour are more likely to be in manufacturing, and much more likely to be in construction, than workers in the overall labour force. They are less likely to be in the services and agriculture sectors than workers in the overall labour force” (ILO)

  • The UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024 mentions construction, fishing industry, agriculture, and placement agencies as sectors where trafficking is perpetrated under a legal facade. Structured criminal organisations were involved “in trafficking for forced labour in construction, in the cleaning sector and in the trafficking of large numbers of women for domestic work”. 

  • In some contexts, labour trafficking is neglected compared to sex trafficking. In the US, “[l]abor trafficking is difficult to identify and poorly understood compared to sex trafficking.”

Sexual trafficking

Types of sexual trafficking

How it works

Human trafficking takes place globally.

Traffickers often seek people willing to migrate and promise them work or opportunities for work. Some victims may also be kidnapped or coerced, though only 3% of victims are abducted into their situation. Many trafficking survivors have been trafficked by their romantic partners, spouses, parents, or other family members.


The traffickers may supply fake travel documents to the victims. Passports and other documents are confiscated by the traffickers once the victims arrive at their destination. Victims are then often abused physically or sexually and forced into labour or sex work. False or deceptive contracts may be used to justify forced slavery.

Traffickers use threats of deportation, seizing the victims’ travel documentation, or violence against their family members in the origin country as means of control.

Violation Type Percentage
Threats to individual and family 61.2%
Use of deception 79.7%
Denied movement, food/water and medical attention 76.2%
Given drugs and alcohol 6.3%
Withholding of documents 61.0%
Debt bondage 36.3%
Withholding of wages and excessive working hours 82.4%

From Human trafficking and violence: Findings from the largest global dataset of trafficking survivors – table slightly modified for better readability

Traffickers often use the internet to identify and groom potential victims. Two strategies identified by UNODC include "hunting" and "fishing".

In hunting strategies, traffickers proactively target potential victims based on characteristics like economic, emotional or other vulnerabilities.

In fishing strategies, they post advertisements (for example, for work in a foreign country) and wait for potential victims to respond.

Both strategies are also used to find clients interested in the traffickers' services.

Drug trafficking and human trafficking are intertwined, often using the same actors and routes.

Traffick Flow

There is both trafficking within a region, for example, within Sub-Saharan Africa, and trafficking between regions, like trafficking people from South Asia to the Middle East.

Most detected victims are either trafficked domestically (about 60%) or within the same region (17%)

Trafficked persons

Of trafficking victims detected in 2022: 

  • 39% were women 

  • 23% men

  • 22% girls 

  • 16% boys

People trafficked for forced labour are mostly male (see section on forced labour above). People trafficked for sex work are mostly women and girls (see section on sex trafficking above). Men and boys are rarely trafficked for sex work, but it does happen.

Traffickers often target and victimize individuals in vulnerable situations such as those “experiencing conflict, natural disasters, poverty, challenging home lives, systemic oppression, or a combination of hardships.” (US Department of State 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report)

People who are trafficked are not always the poorest and least educated. An analysis of data from a dataset of trafficking survivors found that “40% of those who were trafficked had a secondary education and only 16% self-identified as very poor”. (US Department of State 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report)

Children as trafficking victims

Children are frequently trafficked under the false promise of a better life, only to face numerous forms of exploitation. They may be placed in domestic servitude or forced to work in cottage industries, manufacturing, or the entertainment and sex industry.

Trafficked children frequently have to work for excessive periods and under very hazardous working conditions. They frequently receive little to no pay. Sometimes children are trafficked to become child soldiers or for prostitution, theft, begging, or drug trading.

Girls are typically trafficked “for sexual exploitation and to a lesser extent for forced labour and other forms of exploitation such as forced marriage”. Boys are primarily trafficked “for forced labour and for other forms of exploitation, typically forced criminality”. (UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons Report 2024)

Since 2019, there has been an increase of approximately 31 per cent in recorded child victims.

Perpetrators

Both men and women are involved in trafficking. “In 2022, men accounted for about 70 per cent globally of those investigated, prosecuted and convicted of trafficking in persons”.

Most traffickers are part of a structured group or a loose network, and these groups traffick more victims per trafficker than unorganised traffickers. Trafficking networks vary from a few loosely associated freelancers to large organised criminal groups. About 75% of organised crime trafficking happens through business-type organisations.


Kyla Raby and Nerida Chasal have identified four common stereotypes associated with traffickers: “that they are male, unknown to their victims, foreigners, and use physical force to control their victims”. They then proceed to show that these are indeed stereotypes that are often not true. For example, it is often necessary for the trafficker to gain the trust of their potential victim so that strategies of coercion, fraud, deception, or abuse of power would work in recruiting.

Traffickers may do this by first establishing a non-exploitative relationship with the victim and increasing coercion and control gradually. Traffickers also often recruit people of the same nationality and background as themselves to help establish trust.

The importance of the problem

Scale

Human trafficking is a large global problem. 

It is important to note that “human trafficking” is sometimes used in a more strict and sometimes in a wider sense, which results in very different numbers. 

Human trafficking is a big business. The International Labour Organization estimates that forced labour generates a total of $236 billion in profits annually—this includes slavery, serfdom and bonded labour in addition to human trafficking in the strict sense. Encyclopedia Britannica estimates £32 billion in annual profits from human trafficking in the narrow sense.

Harms

Mental, physical and sexual health problems are highly prevalent among trafficked people, and they experience high levels of physical and sexual violence. Trafficking also harms people economically, socially, and spiritually.

Physical and sexual violence 

Other physical health issues

  • According to a report by Giving What We Can, “trafficking causes physical, sexual and psychological harm, and is associated with occupational hazards, legal restrictions and psychological problems as a result of marginalisation and stigmatization.” Reported problems include:

    • headache

    • back pain

    • significant weight loss

    • sexual and reproductive health problems

    • sexually transmitted infections

    • injuries 

    • malnutrition 

    • infectious diseases like tuberculosis, hepatitis, malaria and pneumonia worsen the situation of trafficking victims

  • An analysis of studies on HIV prevalence among trafficked sex workers found that the prevalence varied widely in different studies. The average prevalence is likely between 0.5–35.7%.

Mental health

Social harm

Spiritual harm

  • Trafficked people may be forced to do things like conducting online scams or sex work.

  • Trafficked people may be cut from their faith communities and otherwise hindered from practising their faith. This observation is not based on existing research, but it’s a deduction based on:

  1. People are often trafficked to locations that have a different culture, language or religion than the region they are from

  2. Trafficked people are often purposefully isolated from society to some degree in the target location.

  3. The basic freedoms of trafficked persons are often limited by their traffickers

  4. Trafficked persons are often made to work long hours

  5. These things may prevent them from 

    • attending worship

    • spending time in prayer

    • having access to Scripture and spiritual materials 

      • and being able to spend time reading them

Economic harm

  • Trafficked people are often not paid at all or not paid in time. They may also be given food or housing instead of pay.

    • A study found that 82% of trafficked persons experienced withholding of wages and excessive working hours.

  • Trafficked people have diminished or no ability to financially support their families and communities in their countries of origin.

Disability weight (DALY)

  • Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) or Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) are commonly used to compare different global health interventions. 

    • They work by assigning a weight between 0 and 1 to various health conditions, where 0 equals perfect health and 1 the worst possible health state, effectively death. 

    • One year of life lived with a condition of severity 0.25, for example, would be considered equivalent to losing 25% of that time of healthy life, three months in this case. In this example, quality of life would be health-wise 75% of what it would be in full health.

  • Giving What We Can tentatively assigned modern slavery an approximate DALY weight of 0.3–0.7, though this is essentially an educated guess due to lack of research. 

    • This range suggests that the health burden of modern slavery is comparable to severe health conditions, which sounds reasonable, especially given that people in modern slavery often experience several health problems as the information above shows.

    • For comparison, acute low back pain with leg pain has a disability weight of 0.322, a moderate episode of major depressive disorder has a weight of 0.406, and severe multiple sclerosis has a weight of 0.707.

  • Using these numbers, we can calculate speculative DALYs for global modern slavery using the 27 million number (ILO estimate of people in modern slavery, not counting forced marriage): 8.1M DALYs annually if the weight is 0.3, and 18.9M DALYs using 0.7 as the weight. 

    • These numbers would make the global annual health burden of modern slavery around the same size as Interpersonal violence (26.8M), maternal disorders (12.3M) or conflict and terrorism (8.7M).

    • However, I want to re-emphasize that these numbers are speculation and not backed up by peer-reviewed research.

Neglected?

Anti-trafficking efforts receive substantial support and attention, but current efforts have been insufficient to eradicate the problem, and human trafficking continues on a large scale.

Overall, human trafficking appears to have a relatively large amount of visibility as a problem. Governments fund anti-trafficking efforts for hundreds of millions of US dollars per year and most countries have signed the UN anti-trafficking protocol and have anti-trafficking legislation.

There are also a large number of NGOs actively working on the problem. 

On the other hand, the impact of interventions is often questionable (see section on Anti-trafficking interventions below). Legislation is commonly weak or weakly enforced. The problem persists on a large scale despite about three decades of international attention.

The global annual funding of all anti-trafficking efforts is very likely under one per cent of the profits of human trafficking, estimated at $236 billion annually.

Funding of anti-trafficking

The US spent on average $248 million per year on anti-trafficking activities between fiscal years 2017–2021.

State funding has grown dramatically since the early 2000s. Between 2003 and 2012, twelve OECD donor countries, including the US, spent $124 million collectively in counter-trafficking efforts—half of what the US alone spent per year in 2027–2021. This reflects the growing concern regarding human trafficking since the late 1990s.

Still, there is likely room for more funding, given that the problem persists and that the estimated profits from human trafficking are still $236 billion annually. Because there is not much strong evidence currently regarding what kinds of interventions work best, there could be funding opportunities in research to figure this out and in funding especially promising interventions.

Organisations working on human trafficking

International organisations

  • the UN had international frameworks in place to prevent trafficking

  • The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

  • Interpol

  • IOM (International Organization for Migration)

  • ILO (International Labour Organization)

  • In the US, the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons is the main agency monitoring human trafficking. Various other federal agencies are also involved.

    • the Department of Justice

    • the Department of Homeland Security

    • the Department of Health and Human Services

    • the Department of Labor

  • Various NGOs (a sampling of some prominent organisations)—note, this is not an endorsement or a recommendation of these organisations; I have not conducted extensive research into their work.

    • Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW): A network of over 100 NGOs worldwide advocating for the rights of trafficked persons and promoting human rights-based approaches to trafficking.​

    • Anti-Slavery International: Founded in 1839, it is the world's oldest international human rights organization, focusing on ending slavery in all its forms.​

    • Freedom Fund: A philanthropic initiative dedicated to identifying and investing in effective frontline efforts to end modern slavery.​ (see below 

    • International Justice Mission (IJM): A global organization that rescues victims of violence, brings criminals to justice, restores survivors, and strengthens justice systems.​

    • Free the Slaves: Works to end slavery worldwide by empowering communities, strengthening laws, and providing survivor support.​

    • Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS): A public-private partnership aiming to end modern slavery by making it economically unprofitable.​

    • Polaris Project: Operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and works to reshape systems that allow for sex and labor trafficking in North America.​

    • Asia Floor Wage Alliance: Advocates for living wages and decent working conditions in the Asian garment industry to combat labor exploitation.​

    • Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.): Focuses on rescuing children from sex trafficking and providing aftercare; has faced controversy regarding its methods. and the conduct of its leader.

    • ECPAT International: A global network dedicated to ending the sexual exploitation of children, focusing on trafficking, online exploitation, and exploitation in travel and tourism.​

    • Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW): An international NGO working to end human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.​ 

    • Hope for Justice: Identifies and rescues victims, advocates on their behalf, provides restorative care, and trains frontline professionals to tackle slavery.​

    • Love146: Works to end child trafficking and exploitation through prevention education and survivor care.

    • Maiti Nepal: A nonprofit organization in Nepal dedicated to helping victims of sex trafficking through rescue, rehabilitation, and advocacy.​

    • Prerana: An NGO operating in Mumbai's red-light districts, protecting children vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking.​

    • Ratanak International: Rescues children from sexual slavery in Cambodia and provides them with education, rehabilitation, and safety.​

    • Reaching Out Romania: A Romanian NGO that helps girls aged 13 to 22 exit the sex industry and rebuild their lives.​

    • Shared Hope International: Focuses on preventing sex trafficking, restoring victims, and bringing justice to vulnerable women and children.​

    • Stop the Traffik: A global movement of individuals, communities, and organizations fighting to prevent human trafficking.​

Tractability?

Evidence of effective interventions

Due to a lack of high-quality evidence, I was not able to identify the most effective approaches with confidence.

Below, I point to some promising interventions and findings on what does not work.

The current body of research on human trafficking interventions is weak compared to fields like global health. Unlike in global health, I cannot confidently identify top charities whose work is supported by a robust body of independent research.

I can still identify promising interventions and areas where more research and better evaluation methods are needed, as well as highlight some useful findings. 

Various assessments and reviews on the impact of anti-trafficking interventions have noted that there is little evidence demonstrating impact and that evaluations of program effectiveness tend to be of poor quality.

Evaluations of anti-trafficking interventions are conducted, but there are few high-quality measurements of the actual impact of the interventions. Evaluations have primarily focused on the progress of project implementation and how project outputs have been achieved, rather than the outcomes or impact of projects.  

It seems the situation has started improving beginning in the latter part of the 2010’s. The Innovations for Poverty Action Human Trafficking Research Initiative is one promising project that attempts to tackle the current lack of evidence on what programs work to reduce trafficking and support victims.

However, working on improving the evidence base on the effectiveness of anti-trafficking interventions appears to be an important and relatively neglected area.

Assessing effectiveness of interventions

Raising awareness

Evidence: mixed evidence for different types of programs; some promising interventions identified, but more research is needed.

  • Information and awareness-raising campaigns may improve knowledge but seem to generally have limited effects on changing unsafe migration practices or reducing human trafficking.

    • Pre-migration and knowledge-building and awareness-raising campaigns are one type of these campaigns. In these programs, people who might consider migrating to work and are vulnerable to human trafficking are given information that could protect them from exploitation. 

  • There is evidence that these interventions have not worked. A problem is that the interventions studied were not well-targeted or contextually tailored. 

  • These interventions may potentially be harmful when not grounded in the local context.

  • However, there may still be specific types of information and awareness-raising campaigns that work. 

    • “Increasing the availability of information on worker conditions in factories may lead to improvements in labor conditions and worker rights and reduce trafficking.” (Human Trafficking Prevention: Improving Interventions to Combat Forced Labor and Human Trafficking by Innovation for Povery Action)

    • An ILO impact study on a fair recruitment program for garment workers migrating from Nepal to Jordan found significantly lower debt and deception for those hired under an ethical recruitment model.

      • This was identified as promising by Inventions for Poverty Action as an intervention that may improve labour conditions for migrant workers and reduce exploitation in destination countries.

      • The fair recruitment program “provided job-match screening, the elimination of recruitment fees, and a month-long pre-departure training covering job details, terms of their contract, work conditions and skills training”. (Source)

Freedom Fund's hotspot model

Freedom Fund funds local NGOs to work in human trafficking hotspots. Their hotspot model’s core elements include “concentrating resources on a tightly defined geographic area, funding a diverse group of primarily grassroots organisations to provide a range of support to the target population, and employing staff on the ground to support grantee partners and encourage the sharing of best practice”. (Source)

  • Evidence 

    • Two independent evaluations reported strong effects in Indian hotspots, but despite good methodological qualities, they had no control groups and don’t fulfil the criteria for highest quality evidence. Another independent evaluation reported effects in Central Nepal, but this evaluation lacks quantitative data.

    • The mixed nature of the various NGO interventions means it’s hard to say what the “active ingredients” really are. 

    • The short timeframe also raises questions of long-term sustainability of the results: will the reduction persist after the programs end?

  • Southern and Northern India hotspots results

    • The Freedom Fund reports impressive results from its hotspot model in Uttar Pradesh in Northern and Tamil Nadu in Southern India: 

  • Freedom Fund reports $52 per person affected for the Northern India hotspot and $49 per person for the Southern India hotspot. However, “person affected” is not exactly defined in the report.

    • Using just the reduction of the number of people in bondage and the overall investment of $15.8M, we get about $126 per person. This seems quite low, but perhaps not impossibly so. 

    • However, given the methodological limitation below and this assessment relying on only two reports, we cannot take the number as a face-value cost-effectiveness estimate for the Freedom Fund.

  • Freedom Fund’s hotspot model appears promising, but we are highly uncertain given the limited evidence. Freedom Fund also seems to be committed to carefully evaluating their work and publishing the results. 

    • However, I am uncertain regarding how much Freedom Fund benefits from marginal funding at the moment, so I cannot say whether donating to them is an impactful option at the moment.

Advocacy and legislation

Evidence: Very weak, mostly an educated guess. One review of different anti-trafficking interventions identified supporting governments in passing legislation as having an impact.

  • Many countries have anti-trafficking legislation, but existing legislation is often weak. Advocating for strengthening the UK Modern Slavery Act and similar existing legislation in other countries by adding sanctions and other enforcement mechanisms could be effective. (See the UK Act)

    • Reasons this could be effective: 

      • relatively low cost of advocacy compared to potentially large downstream effects, especially large economies like the UK and the US

      • improving legislation in some countries might inspire similar changes in other countries’ legislation

    • Reasons it might not be effective

      • How much will improvements result in the problem moving elsewhere where it’s harder to detect?

      • Resistance from industry

  • In a 2020 review, supporting governments in passing legislation had an impact when there was national ownership and sufficient time allocated “to reflect the length of time it takes to implement legislative and policy change”.

  • While direct cause-and-effect is hard to quantify, advocacy has led to higher prioritization of trafficking by governments, e.g., national action plans and increased budgets (see Funding of anti-trafficking section above)​.

Economic empowerment programmes

Innovations for Poverty Action has identified Economic empowerment programs as promising interventions to combat human trafficking, but by 2023, the highest-quality evidence on the effect of these programs on trafficking rates was missing.

These interventions are aimed at helping populations at risk of trafficking to develop livelihoods. This makes them economically more secure and less vulnerable to trafficking. 

Trauma-informed mental health support for survivors

Trauma-informed mental health support for trafficking survivors appears successful at least in children, but there is much more limited evidence on mental health support in adult survivors.

Evidence:

Identified as promising by the Human Trafficking Research Initiative of Innovations for Poverty Action.

A controlled study on Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, and three RCTs on narrative exposure therapy to former child soldiers, demonstrated a reduction in PTSD symptoms. Only one RCT supports the effectiveness of narrative exposure therapy in adults.

Training

Educational interventions may improve healthcare and specialized social workers’ ability to identify and support human trafficking victims in the US, but this conclusion rests on a small number of studies and more research is needed.

Law enforcement and judicial capacity building

Law enforcement and judicial capacity building is identified as a promising, scalable intervention by Innovations for Poverty Action, but they only reference one study to support this.

  • Law enforcement and judicial capacity building are integral components of the International Justice Mission. They have reported promising results from their Program to Combat Sex Trafficking of Children in the Philippines in 2003–2015.

Intervention How it Works (Summary) Implemented By Impactfulness
Information & Awareness-Raising Campaigns Provides potential migrants with information to prevent exploitation. NGOs, international organizations (e.g., ILO) Mixed; potentially promising when contextually tailored, otherwise limited or possibly harmful. Increasing availability of information on worker conditions in factories and ethical recruitment models promising.
Freedom Fund Hotspot Model Concentrates resources in trafficking hotspots, supports grassroots organizations, and fosters best practices locally. Freedom Fund in partnership with local NGOs Promising; significant reported reductions in bonded labor, but methodological limitations in evidence on long-term sustainability unclear.
Advocacy & Legislation Advocates for stronger anti-trafficking laws and enforcement mechanisms. NGOs, advocacy groups, governments Weak evidence but potentially impactful, especially with strong national ownership and implementation.
Economic Empowerment Programs Supports vulnerable populations economically to reduce trafficking vulnerability. NGOs, development organizations Promising in theory; high-quality empirical evidence currently lacking.
Trauma-informed Mental Health Support Provides psychological support specifically designed for trafficking survivors to address trauma. Mental health professionals, specialized NGOs Promising, especially for child survivors; limited evidence for adults.
Training (Educational Interventions) Enhances the ability of healthcare and social workers to identify and assist trafficking victims. Healthcare organizations, educational institutions Promising; effectiveness indicated in some studies, but more rigorous studies needed.
Law Enforcement & Judicial Capacity Building Strengthens judicial and law enforcement capabilities to combat trafficking. International Justice Mission, government agencies Promising and potentially scalable; evidence from specific contexts (IJM Philippines) but limited overall research.

Career advice

Because of the current state of the research into the effectiveness of anti-trafficking interventions (see above under Evidence for the effectiveness of anti-trafficking interventions), I cannot give confident advice on what works best to combat human trafficking.

Below are tentative suggestions, but they are best thought of as a starting point for your own investigation into impact opportunities.

  • Conducting or promoting high-quality research into the effectiveness of human trafficking interventions

  • Exploring promising, scalable solutions like those mentioned in the Innovations for Poverty Action 2023 Best Bets report, or ones that their Human Trafficking Research Initiative has identified (see section Tractability of Human human trafficking for more details on these interventions).

    • Economic empowerment programs

    • Law enforcement and judicial capacity building

    • Increasing the availability of information on worker conditions in factories

    • Ethical recruitment models

    • Trauma-informed mental health support for former child soldiers

    • Possibly: Educational interventions may improve healthcare and specialized social workers’ ability to identify and support human trafficking victims in the US

  • Avoid interventions that have evidence of a lack of impact or potential harm (or at least approach these interventions carefully and critically)

  • Avoid being guided by sensationalising media and stereotypes

  • Consider focusing on neglected areas of human trafficking

  • Possibly: advocating for strengthening existing legislation like the UK Modern Slavery Act and similar laws in other countries by adding sanctions and other enforcement mechanisms, as existing legislation is weak.

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